Analysis Of Righteous Dopefiend

Our text illustrates that there are various populations within the homeless community. These people are homeless for different reasons, whether its voluntary or involuntarily. Runaways and Victims of

Lee D. Hoffer’s “Junkie Business: The Evolution and Operation of a Heroin Dealing Network” is an ethnography that details the buying and dealing of the highly addictive drug, heroin, in the particularly homeless area of Denver, Colorado called “Larimer” from 1995 to the year 2000. The majority of the book focuses on the partnership of two heroin dealers, Kurt and Danny, and examines their daily lifestyles and the transitional periods they faced during their operations. On a much broader level, Hoffer wanted to characterize the heroin dealing occurring on the consumer-oriented side of the heroin dealing business, as well as understand the evolution of Kurt and Danny’s operations. Hoffer’s virtually unlimited

20; Levi, Rosenthal & Bailey 2013, 241). In the case of the Edgewater homeless, this photo ethnography urges the reader to move beyond base simplistic assumptions and stigma surrounding the community and move towards a greater understand of how large coercive constraints interact with intimate behaviour, and how this contributes to, and continue to contribute to, the Edgewater homeless circumstances and suffering (Bourgois & Schonberg 2009, p.20). Bourgois and Schonberg (2009, pp. 20, 318) state that the Edgewater Boulevard is home to the social pariahs who have hit rock bottom, fleeing and expelled from family, the labour force and government services, and all the while blaming themselves for their fate. It is the gray zone that justifies this self-condemnation and where interpersonal violence and betrayal can fester, playing out between loved ones or themselves (Bourgois & Schonberg 2009, p. 318). Bourgois and Schonberg (2009, p. 318) state that it is this everyday spectacle of gray zone behaviour that obscures impact of long-term social forces and legitimizes purposefully hostile or dysfunctional government policies towards the poor.

In the speech,”Everything you know about addiction is wrong,” spoken by Johann Hari, attempts to inform the audience about how society takes drug addiction the wrong way and is completely normal for a human to use drugs as a last resort in life. The presentation starts off when he explains to the audience the many different drug addicts he has met in his life a few years ago while traveling a long 30,000 mile journey. He then goes onto stating from his research that everything humanity has been taught about drugs is completely backwards. A experiment was done in the 50’s to show the relationship between drugs and social life. The reason people start drugs is not because they want to, but it is caused by not being able to bear a present in your life. Moreover, there is cruel punishments of drug abuse in America and how Portugal has tried to change it in their country. Luckily people can get over any kind of addiction when they have a friend or blood relative that they can call on if they have a crisis. Finally, people should be more supportive and open in their heart when it comes to others that have a addiction. The author uses logos and pathos to emotionally connect and comfort the people that have thought about drugs in their life and people that dislike drugs and addicts, but using ethos he tries to make a change in the natural drug habitat.

Dr. Gabor Mate, a Hungarian born Canadian physician, who is also a neurologist, psychiatrist, and psychologist, but who specializes in the study and treatment of addiction, reveals revolutionary evidence pertaining to addiction. In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Dr. Mate worked with patients suffering chronic drug addiction for 12 years. With 20 years of experience as a family practitioner, Dr. Mate is a renowned speaker and teacher throughout North America; sharing his extensive knowledge with diverse audiences including health care professionals and educators (Mate, About Dr. Mate, 2016). The Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Dr. Mate’s most recent best-selling book, illuminates the origins and causes of addiction. As Co-founder of Compassion for Addiction (a non-profit organization), Dr. Gabor Mate encourages a greater understanding; “addiction is the attempt of affected human beings to escape a profound discomfort with themselves and their world” (Mate, Compassion4Addiction, 2015). Drawing on cutting-edge science, Dr. Mate presents the world with a shocking discovery: “The source of addiction is not to be found in genes, but in the early childhood environment.” Therefore, Dr. Mate simply “calls for a more compassionate approach toward the addict.” (Mate, 2016) As cutting-edge science concludes addiction to be a mental health issue, rather than criminal behavior, the American legal system demonstrates a devastating disservice to its own society.

Homelessness is a growing epidemic across the country. This terrible misfortune has led to many unsuspecting people leading impoverished lifestyles, and facing the horrific and heart-wrenching tragedy of abandonment. The purpose of this essay is to not only persuade the readers to get involved in ending homelessness on local and national efforts, but to embrace new and creative ways of helping to end this rapidly growing problem, by taking action to end this catastrophic situation. Also, I will demonstrate the causes and effects of the homeless resorting to violence, by using comparison and contrast to examine the views and standpoints on helping the forgotten, so that we might end this calamity once and for all. In an increasingly

They even provide a constitutive power of it (p. 7). Garcia considers how addiction is a disease emerging from the need to numb invisible communal suffering produced by historical and ongoing trauma. “The word people often use for heroin in northern New Mexico is ‘medicinal,” Garcia explained in a recent interview. “They view heroin as just another medication that takes the pain away.” Garcia developed an intimate knowledge of heroin addiction in the valley by developing relationships with addicts while working at the only clinic in the region. As a consequence, The Pastoral Clinic shows the relationship between self-medicating and the regional geographic and cultural dispossessions that have led to displacement, marginalization, addiction, and communal pain.

You would think that people would stop using when they hear the statistics, or when they see their friend die because of it, but the truth is they can’t stop because they are already addicted. Alison, a young girl using states, “From the day I started using, I never stopped. “Within one week I had gone from snorting heroin to shooting it. Within one month I was addicted and going through all my money.” (International) The expanding epidemic of unawareness is taking its toll on the adolescents of St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and the rest of the world. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs makes it somewhat easier to understand why people use heroin. The top three levels of the pyramid, 1.social 2.esteem 3.self-actualization, show what people are trying to get out of using. Most people will begin using due to peer pressure and trying to fit in. What kids do not realize is that the first time using could lead to addiction. So they will continue using because it makes them feel better about themselves, it becomes a part of who they are. Pretty soon they look around and realize heroin is the only thing they have left, because everyone else has left. These problems teens are facing here in Missouri are the same ones they are facing all over the world. A recent statistic from the International Statistics of Heroin Addiction & Abuse reports that over 9 million people in the world are using heroin. (International) You read stories every day of

This literature review will focus mainly on the drug use of heroin, the scary numbers behind the drug and the sudden rise of overdosing on the drug across the United States. Issues that will be discussed are what is Heroin, what’s in Heroin that makes it addicting, how it can increase the users risk of contracting other life threatening diseases and where it’s use and abuse are most popular across the United states and we will take a look at multiple studies that show examples of our new drug problem in the United States. While we looked at how homicide rates have dropped while in class, the flip side to that is that the amount of drug usage has risen.

He assumes that drug addiction originated by younger years adversity in major cases; like many women who are addicted are victims of sexual assault in childhood years. Similar, he tells that males suffered “series of abandonment or severe physical and psychological abuse” (Maté 274) in childhood memory would easily be involved in addiction. According to Mate, drug addicts are usually in a state of unawareness; they can self-harm without feeling pain (274). Maté’s patient, Carl, thirty-six year-old native, angrily hurt himself with a knife as punishment for using cocaine (274). However, people misunderstand that addiction will not happen in families that raise children with a “secure nurturing home” (Maté 275). He argues that it still exists in those secure homes, even though they do not recognize it. In brief, Maté describes the mental factors such as stress, anxiety, and depression which are saddled “from family problem, or from outside circumstance” (274); this pressures can emotionally affect to the process of “endorphin-liberating interaction with their children” (Maté 275). He thinks children would rely on opiates to comfort their deepest emotions; it would be a best solution to escape their lonely world. For that reason, Maté confirms addicts usually blame themselves for “stupid decision” (Maté 275) after being suffered of drug starvation. In the last paragraph, Maté concludes his essay by stating “that is the great wound of all” (275),

Homelessness is a social crisis that has stayed with us throughout our history. There was an increase in the number of homeless people in the 1980s due to housing and social service cuts increasing. In Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg’s, “Righteous Dopefiend,” being homeless is just one of the many problems that encompass their day to day reality. The two anthropologists assimilate themselves in the homeless community and observe the hardships that come from living on the streets and drug addiction. A better understanding is attained through their ethnographic research and details of the homeless’ lives can be used to further our knowledge and help in solving society’s problems. This ethnography shows

The homeless and addicts have been stratified to the bottom of the social ladder. They are thought to be deviants therefore as a society we are taught to ignore and despise them and disregard their needs. Bourgeois and Schonberg’s 10-year study, Righteous Dopefiend, follows the lives of heroin addicted homeless folk living on Edgewater Boulevard. The Edgewater homeless recognize that those with economic capital have a responsibility in caring for their needs thus they embrace their worthiness in society. As a result of this they label themselves as “righteous dopefiends” (2009, p. 5). Bourgeois and Schonberg show how structural violence has affected the Edgewater homeless, such as self-blame, lack of access to quality medical care and what

Righteous Dopefiend by Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg is about the lived experiences of a group of people (referred to as the Edgewater Homeless) who are homeless and addicted to substances (primarily heroin and secondary drugs such as cocaine and alcohol). One of the people in the book that had a significant impact on me was Tina. I view Tina as a representation of the female perspective of the Edgewater Homeless. As Tina was introduced, I wondered what brought her to drugs and to her attraction to the Edgewater Homeless. I worried for her, as the men in the group discussed the nature of living outside and that it was not an environment for woman, due to unhygienic nature of homelessness and the exposure to the elements outside. I also worried about the treatment that the women received from the men. The men spoke about woman as they were not as valuable as they were, or if the women existed to comfort

3. Exchange and agency are two complex social processes that surround production and consumption of heroin within the

Numerous individuals do not comprehend why individuals get to be dependent on drugs or how drugs can change the mind to cultivate enthusiastic drug abuse. They erroneously view drug misuse and dependence as entirely a social issue and may describe the individuals who take drugs as ethically powerless (Alving, Matyas, Torres, Jalah, & Beck, 2014). One extremely regular belief is that drugs abusers ought to have the capacity to stop taking drugs if they are willing to change their conduct and be a member of society (Alvin et al., 2014). What individuals frequently underestimate is the intricacy of drug dependence that this is